Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Now that we are officially Microsoft Certified Partners, we are now using Team Foundation Server. Tim talks about that here. With this fantastic new source control we have decided to push forward immediately with ParaPlan 4.0 development (codename 'Goldstar'). It will be written in C# for Visual Studio 2005 Team System for Developers.

I will be working on form design while Tim will be doing the hard stuff. Our first Goldstar screenshot is show here. Stay tuned!

Monday, November 27, 2006

Our flagship software solution, ParaPlan, will reach version 3.7.00 during my upcoming visit to Pennsylvania Transit Company in Philadelphia. I will be helping them GO LIVE on December 1, 2006. We are all very excited about this fast-paced startup. It normally takes 90 days to start a transit company from scratch, but we are going to finish the job in only 21 days!

We are creating a mode of ParaPlan to integrate with LogistiCare. This model will allow ParaPlan to operate as merely a computer aided scheduling system, whereas, LogistiCare serves as the call center and allows PTC to download the trips they are to provide.

Monday, November 13, 2006

I am in Philadelphia installing a new ParaPlan Pro for PTC. It is a brand new operation that is currently setting their new office, training drivers and procuring vehicles. PTC will be a service providing around 1,000 daily trips brokered from LogistCare. We will also be providing an interface to the LogistCare system for use with ParaPlan. Stay tuned!

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Thanks to Pamela Pedrick, Executive Director of Salem County Office on Aging, EnGraph will be at the n4a Conference and Tradeshow this July in San Francisco. This national conference will be a fantastic opportunity to meet potential clients and promote the EnGraph brand.

Pam is also working hard to host a session where representatives from this entire project present a case study for attendees at the conference. This proposed session will be a detailed presentation of the individual technologies that made her vision a reality. This technologies include:

Tim and I just got back from visiting our clients in Salem, NJ. They are using ParaPlan Pro GPS and we went there to upgrade their system and train them on our new software features. The GPS hardware selected for this solution is from ATTI. They have an interesting architecture where they have 5 remote sites that collect GPS data from 24 vehicles every 3 seconds, then send that information from each site to their central server. How does this happen you ask?

These applications monitor, collect, parse and organize GPS data from each remote site where the data is provided to the end user in our GPS Control Room application at the main office. This architecture was developed by Tim Hibbard to work as a stand-alone product or with ParaPlan Pro. Control Room can be used with ParaPlan to automatically determine actual client pick up and drop off times. This ability is crucial for organizations like SCST, where having this kind of information is invaluable. From this timestamp data, we can provide on-time performance reports for each driver and use actual drivetimes to better estimate planned drivetimes with ParaPlan. From the GPS data, we can also determine the vehicle's mileage for each planned stop it makes.

With this GPS information and data from ParaPlan Pro, EnGraph can automatically generate the New Jersey Transit Quarterly Program/Vehicle Usage Reports at the push of a button. We can also provide the NJ State Deadhead and Live Miles reports. Using ParaPlan Pro GPS, we can determine multiple types of defined 'deadhead', along with variations of Live miles reporting. For New Jersey, live miles are divided equally between clients of different funding sources when the ride is shared.

Anyway, my point is the following...EnGraph's ParaPlan Pro GPS generates complex ridership reports in seconds compared to potentially inaccurate results that previously took weeks to prepare.

I dont think I have yet to show off my new skin that came from Dell. When I ordered this laptop, one of the many options on the list was to 'Participate in their new skin promotion'. So I clicked YES of course. Anyway, it was a tad convoluded because I received the laptop, then several days later got an email telling me how to select my skin. Needless to say, after a semi-painful experience I got to the site where I could select and order my skin. They did not have many to choose from, but they did have colleges...so Rock Chalk!

Carl and I attended the Arkansas Transit Conference last week and had a great time. Not only were we very busy talking to our existing clients, but many potential ParaPlan users drilled us with questions for two days. This show marks EnGraph's 5th year of attendance at one of our favorite state transit conferences. Thanks Arkansas!

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Carl and I will be driving to the Arkansas Transit Show in Eureka Springs, AR today and coming back on Wednesday evening. Please track us online here, just select Carl Kurt from the pull-down menu on the left.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

As an engineer who loved programming, I learned VB v3 back in 1993 and developed many apps for classes and work etc. I built ParaPlan using VBA because it provided me immediate data access that I found very easy to use.

As EnGraph has grown, we need to step out of these bounds and build better software. Tim has been building all our new components in .NET for 3 years now. I am teaching myself .NET 05 with help so we can provide a new vehicle maintenance module for our clients.

I am working on the UE first, just to get a feel of Visual Studio and I have to say this is incredible. Tips pop up helping me all the time and intellisense is rockin my world. Things would have been easier with this framework 7 years ago. Anyway, I am currently battling with tabs, panels, lists, menus, etc. and just learning how basic controls work. I am excited to create a 'modern' looking software solution for our new and existing clients. Stay tuned for screen shots etc!

Tim is going to South Carolina for a Code Camp with Jeff, John, Joseph and Dru. These guys are renting a van and driving to Greenville this week. There are gonna post pics on Where's Tim via flickr and several podcasts, so be sure and check these cool-nerds out during their road trip!

Guardian recently threw up an article about GPS uses and interviewed Tim for most of their quotes and information. Read the article here.

I also really like this blog called The Map Room, so check it out perhaps.

Microsoft now has a 'service' to show you on a map where hotspots are near you...view it here.

I have also recently tested the Microsoft MapPoint OCX with our legacy ParaPlan software inside Access VBA and it works like a champ! More info soon!

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Our flagship app, ParaPlan, has been running on SQL 2000 for over 2 years now. Before we re-design everything in .NET, I wanted to see if I could get it to work with SQL 2005 (as is). My attempts thus far have led to the following: 05 has many more INFORMATION tables and SYS tables associated with each database. I have MUCH MUCH more to learn, but I know that I could get an 05 SQL db attached to an Access front end, but I am having trouble with permissions (to the best of my knowledge). So as I learn more and/or hear from someone, stay tuned.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Now that I am married and all that, it is time to get serious about financial planning. Therefore, I downloaded the 90-day trial of Microsoft Money Deluxe ($30). I simply have to say that I am already amazed. I honestly didn't know that these programs can link up to all of your accounts via the web. I first put in my main checking account info and my web login on their site. As I put it into Money, it automatically downloaded my transactions over the last 60 days and managed to put 50% into the proper category.

I love the interface and how easy it is. I continued to put in all my credit cards, my 1st and 2nd mortgage and my investments. I highly recommend it.

Tim showed me how to use the Microsoft 'Save My Office Settings' tool, which worked like a champ as I was setting up my new machine. So if you want to have the same settings, toolbar locations, rules, etc. on a different machine...just go to Microsoft Office Tools->Save My Settings. Then transfer that file (*.OPS) to the new machine and load it the same way, very nice.

Now to Outlook...I wanted to transfer all of my outlook data to the new machine also, which required messing with the infamous 'outlook.pst' file. This file can be found at "C:\Documents and Settings\Kyle Archer\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\".

I found out that PST stands for 'Personal Store' according to Microsoft. Anyway, this monster file contains all your emails, events, contacts, notes, etc. It can get quite large and mine was appraoching a Gig. Even when you clean out your junk mail, delete stuff then remove your 'Deleted Items', it doesn't do much...so I went Googling and found this helpful article from Bob Cerelli (link). Go to Options->Mail Setup Tab->Data Files to help manage your pst file.

Good luck! I reduced the size of my PST file by 65% on my new machine.

Friday, August 25, 2006

I have to say that I am quite please with this new bad boy so far. Tim took this pic of me just as the box arrived. It has a Intel Centrino Duo (2GHz), 15.4" Ultrasharp SXGA+ with TrueLife, 2 GB RAM, SD slot, DVD R/W and a 256MB Nvidia Video Card. I also got a Soundblaster Audigy card that sounds amazing.

Monday, August 21, 2006

We watched Spike Lee's new documentary (When the Levees Broke) about Hurricane Katrina on HBO tonight. Part 2 is on Tuesday, so check it out if you can.

I have several emotions and things to say about it, but I know I can say this, "You should all see it." It is very racially presented, which is in part most likely true, its just SO SO hard for me to see it. I see it as a great tragedy that I am saddened and ashamed of. This film showed me things that I had never seen before regarding the disaster. I think, like me, most people stopped watching after the media stopped covering it, but there was much much more that happened afterwards and I suspect is still happening.

The thing that I cannot believe was the conflict between Mayor Nagin (aka Drew Gooden:) and the Governor of Louisiana. They had political differences that may have led to this debacle. George Bush should have stepped in earlier for sure and he is obviously portrayed in this film as a smiling goofball. My question is..."Why don't senators ever step up during these things?"

The one simple truth is that... I hope we take care of our own better next time.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

I have been a proud owner of a Dell Inspiron 5150 for almost 3 years. It has been very good to me, but after many years of abuse and one rebuild...it is time to go. This machine has been grinding the hardrive for quite some time. I have just dealt with it, but when I go to office.update, I receive the below error. My issues are (I believe) these missing MSP files...

Microsoft had some choices for solutions, but I chose to get a new computer....

The Office Update site is unable to check for updates on this computer. This may be happening because of one of the following reasons:You do not have administrative privileges for this computer.

There is a network problem and the detection catalog used by the Office Update site failed to download. Go back to the Downloads home page and try running detection again.Windows Installer patch files (.MSP files) from previously applied Office updates are missing from the \Windows\Installer hidden directory on your computer. MSP files are stored on your computer after update installation completes because they need to be referenced for future update operations. If the files are missing you will not be able to apply Office updates. You may also be unable to uninstall Office products as a result of the same problem. Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services for assistance.

Every computer I have had professionally with EnGraph has been a Dell. Considering their recent battery issues....I still love them. I just ordered a new laptop (Inspiron 6400 - pictured here) and I got a call from a sales rep confirming my order. This was a first for me, he was from Oklahoma and we talked about all kinds of things. He of course wanted to upgrade me, but that soon went by the wasteside as we talked.

He was nice and friendly and I just have to give some kudos to Dell for this type of the 'customer experience'. GO DELL!

I am ready to see this movie about the TRUE story of 2 policeman who went to save people in the disaster and got trapped. Contrary to how Tim feels, I think it is good to revisit what pains us and then learn from it.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Allie and I just got back from 5 nights in beautiful Jamaica. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort called Sandals Grande Ocho Rios. We went snorkeling twice, went hiking up the Dunn's River Falls, and took a nice sail up Jamaica's northern coast.

Our wedding was amazing and captured in detail by Bruce L. Snell, his work at our wedding can be seen here.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Allie and I got married on Saturday! Everything was incredible. The absolute best memory of my life so far. Allie looked beautiful and the weather was perfect. The food was insane good and every speech was amazing. WOW!

Anyway, we are both up this Monday after..bright and early at 4:30 AM to head off on our honeymoon. We are going to Jamaica (Sandals Grande Ocho Rios).

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Allie and I seem to be thinking about and doing wedding preps constantly. It is going to be an amazing time. I've always loved going to weddings, but had no clue what it takes. All my married buddies (which are most) warned me of the final weeks, so no comment there.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

I will be visiting with Mike Rogers and the Transportation Department staff for the City of Ashland, KY next week. We will be installing ParaPlan and training our new users. We are very excited to welcome Kentucky to the ParaPlan Family. The City of Henderson, KY is also coming soon!

ParaPlan will now be helping our clients serve their clients better in 22 states!

EnGraph is launching Where's Tim On Demand, a new service that will provide temporary GPS tracking for $10 / day. We will provide the phone. We will provide the website. You can even choose to be listed on Where's Tim!

This is a great way to get yourself or your company up and running immediately with GPS tracking online. Tim came up with this idea based on the incredible response and buzz surrounding our GPS innovation. Please let us know if this is something you are interested in.

We are very excited to soon be offering our Pennsylvania clients some nice enhancements to the PennDOT reports provided by ParaPlan. The following reports will soon allow our users to exclude rides based on program, or funding source:

We all know what happened to Phil and it was painful to watch, but several other guys did the same thing. My hat is off to Geoff Ogilvy for playing the last 4 holes at even par and winning the Open. My hat is not off to Phil, Monte, Furyk and Padraig. These guys just let the pressure and the tough course get the better of them. Monte was in perfect position on 18 after a birdie at 17, then missed the green in the worst spot from 170 yds. Furyk missed a 3' putt to send him into a playoff on the final hole. Phil and Padraig played the last 4 holes at +3, while Geoff did it at even par.

I really wish Phil would have one this one because it truly would have put him on a new pedestal near Tiger. Now, however, he is going to have this monkey on his back coming down the stretch of any future major and that will be perhaps tougher than his first monkey :)

I would like to take some time to express my best friend Matt and I's disgust for Johnny Miller as a commentator. He is a cocky, know-it-all, washed-up, has-been jerk. I didn't watch golf in the 70's and I am glad I missed it. I know he has one some big ones, but let it go man. He talks about himself more than the players on the course and it makes me sick. As Phil was messing up the final hole, Johnny Miller said, "Ben Hogan must be turning over in his grave right now." Well Johnny, you have no idea what it is like to be Ben Hogan, nor can you speak for him. He was a true legend and an amazing story of coming back after a tragic accident and you are whiny glory-day washout. Whew...sorry about that.

Anyway, here are some comments from my buddy Matt:

"If I had to listen to Johnny Miller say one more time about how Phil blew it, should not have used the driver, blah, blah, blah......the guy is Venturi re-incarnated. But WORSE!"

"I almost dread when a big tourney like this is on NBC. Give me Nantz and the somewhat more tolerable Lanny on CBS. Miller keeps trying to resurrect his glory years (he spent a couple of minutes yesterday talking about how in 1974 he knew he was the best player in the world, was much better than Jack, and Winged Foot was not a true measure of who the best player was) -- well if you were so good buddy, why are you not out there on the Champions Tour? Or if you think you're THAT good, try playing in a PGA event once in a while. At least McCord gets out on the Champions circuit every once in a while. Maybe I should start my own blog -- I could go on for hours about this topic."

If you watched the US v Italy game and were as appalled as I was about the referee, then please post your disgust here. We tied the world famous Italian National Team with one less man in the second half. The World Cup refs have been pretty good, but this guy was amazing. One of their players elbowed Brian McBride and was tossed. We played a man-up for about 15 minutes, then just before halftime, Pablo Mastroeni of the US got an insane red card for a slide tackle. The announcers thought it was terrible and a 'make-up' call. Score was 1-1. Then it got crazy 2 minutes into the second half when Eddie Pope of the US got his second yellow card and ejected for a slide tackle. I was beside myself because now we had to play one of the best teams a man-down for an entire half. We played great and kept them out of the goal and kept our chances alive.

Anyway, the US must beat Ghana on Thursday morning to have ANY chance of advancing to the next round of 16 teams.

If Italy beats the Czech Republic on Thursday and we win, then we are IN!!! If the Czech's win and we win, then it goes to a 'goal differential' between us and Italy. If Italy and Czech tie, then it goes to a 'goal differential' between us and Czech. Therefore, unless we beat Ghana by 3 goals, then we really need Italy to win (in a nutshell of course).

I did kinda like the guy after my fiance got me hooked on American Idol, but he has taken it to the next level. He is a 'manufactured' pop star and has already sold out before he has sold anything. He can be seen daily on some tacky car commercial...nice work Taylor.

Played golf with my Dad (Gary), brother (Craig) and buddy Jon this past Sunday. We all had a good time on a beautiful day here in KC. Feeling a little non-sleepy tonight so I am gonna blog a bit. My Dad has been taking lessons from Carl out at Smiley's Golf Complex and they are really paying off. He is hitting the ball much more consistently and finally had fun playing the game. He is taking lessons so he can spend more time with his sons as he gets older, which is awesome.

There were alot of deer out on the course (and other animals of the wild kingdom as Jon pointed out). Anyway, I snapped this shot of Craig on hole #7 which was pretty cool.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

I hate to say it, but since Italy beat Ghana in our Group E...its not looking good. Italy and the Czech Rep. were picked to come out of Group E and I now think they are right. After just one game, the USA is in dead last of Group E because they got be 0-3 and Ghana is just above us due to their 0-2 loss. If we beat Italy and Ghana then we have a 'chance', we shall see.

Other notes...I am so excited about the U.S. Open Golf Championship that I can't stand it.Every year my best buddy Peez and I pick a player (outside the top 5 World Ranking)This year he picked Chad Cambell and I picked Stewart Cink.We shall see...stay posted.

I also have to say that 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol is a beautiful song.It will be a HUGE hit I think.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Since I got back from Orlando, I have been catching bits and pieces of various World Cup matches. The Mexico v. Iran game was awesome. Anyway, I am so excited for our Men's National Team...they play today at 11:55 AM ET vs. Czech Republic (ESPN2).

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Mark and I represented EnGraph at the annual CTAA show in Orlando, FL last week. There were serveral competitors of ours present and it always makes me feel good when people come and talke to us. The best part for me was talking to our existing clients who were there and potential ones we have been talking to recently. The resort (Gaylord Palms) was truly incredible. It was like a maze just trying to find our hotel room aside from the conference center.

My friends from Burns & McDonnell, Mark and Stacy Jansen brought their kids and we had fun at the pool and dinner.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Mark and I will be in Orlando June 6-8 at the national CTAA trade show. We will have a booth display and various brochures highlighting EnGraph software products. We will also have our laptops ready for anyone who wants a live demo.

Tim just gave another speech on AJAX and Google Maps down in Wichita, read about it here.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

I am so fired up for the FIFA World Cup this June in Germany (I bought this shirt a while back). Gatorade and Nike have started US Soccer commercials already...maybe you have seen one of them. I started playing soccer when I was 6 years old I think and my Dad picked the name 'Kyle' because he knew about US Soccer great Kyle Rote, Jr.

As a refresher course, this is the BIGGEST sporting event in the world. I loved soccer and liked the World Cup every 4 years as a kid, but never realized its global meaning until I spent the summer of 1990 in Veria, Greece (Google). I spent the summer with the Kaprinis host family and Greece was in the Italia 1990 Cup. Whenever Greece was playing in the 'Copa Mundial', the entire town shut down completely. All workplaces were closed and NOBODY was on the streets...everyone in the town was watching the game either at home or a restaurant. It was incredible for me to experience that.

The United States will never be like that because we have so many sports for people to follow and watch and love. When the US hosted the 1994 World Cup, we got closer. We sold out every game and the US qualified to Stage 2. We beat Colombia to advance to that stage which we hadnt done since 1950 I believe. This is how huge world soccer is...the Colombian player who cost them that match was assassinated when he went back home.

Anyway, here is a quick overview of how the World Cup works:------------------------------------32 Countries qualify for the cup every 4 years.*Just to qualify is an honor itself and the host country gets in automatically.These 32 teams are put into groups of 4 .... (A-H)The US is in Group E this year with powerhouse Italy, the Czech Rep. and Ghana.These Groups A-H play a round-robin schedule from June 9 - June 23.Teams receive 2 points for a win, 1 for a tie and 0 for a loss.The top 2 teams in each group advance to the Stage 2 Tournament.The 16 remaining teams now play in a single elimination tournament (June 24-July 9).*Teams that make it to this have done very very well!!!*The FINAL is the day after my wedding!

Sunday, May 21, 2006

I am traveling to New Jersey this weekend to see our clients in Salem, our client in Kennett Square, PA and talking to other potential clients regarding our ParaPlan Family of products. Tim gave me the Nextel phone so you can track me all week here.

After I reeled about Camtasia and liked their product even more after I heard from Betsy Weber from Camtasia Software (aka TechSmith) .

David thought I might like the features of Macromedia Captivate and he was right! I downloaded the demo and gave it a test drive. Its features are slightly more robust than Camtasia where I have full control of timing, labels, etc in a true Flash format.

Check out another quick presentation I did in just 40 minutes...click here. We will be purchasing one of these applications soon. Stay tuned for more great demos!

Allie and I's wedding announcement is now online at kansascity.com. View it here. Our parents placed actual newspaper ads in the Hutchinson News and Olathe Newspapers. We plan to have our wedding announcment in the KC Star this summer.

Friday, May 12, 2006

David and I recently went to an AutoCAD seminar here in KC at Union Station hosted by Mid-West CAD. Presenters were both from Autodesk and Mid-West CAD. We learned about the new features of several Autodesk products including: AutoCAD 2007, Civil 3D 2007 and Revit 2007.

The most beneficial thing I took from the seminar was the existence of Camtasia Studio. This is a fantastic product that allows you to take PowerPoint presentations and publish them to the web using Flash. Now I can quickly publish marketing demos, training videos and more to our website. I downloaded the 30-day demo and quickly produced this in only 15 minutes start to finish.

It is very affordable and we are excited about its potential for our existing and future clients!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

My friend Amy found this online from Sarah Sizemore:(This is the actual list used by DM members and crew during the show)

1. Intro2. A Pain that I'm Used To3. A Question of Time4. Suffer Well5. Precious6. Walking in My Shoes7. Stripped8. Home9. It Doesn't Matter Two10. In Your Room11. Nothing's Impossible12. John The Revelator13. I Feel You14. Behind The Wheel15. World In My Eyes16. Personal Jesus17. Enjoy The Silence***ENCORE18. Shake The Disease19. Just Can't Get Enough20. Never Let Me Down Again

One of my all time favorite bands came back to Kansas City for their new tour last night. They were playing at one of our nicer outdoor theatres called Starlight. I even got Allie fired up for it by making her a CD of previous set list songs. Tickets were outrageous, but oh well, I love em. The night started off a tad bit odd because a) it was chilly and b) She Wants Revenge started at 7:40pm and not the show start time of 8PM. Then my boys came on with a fun loud techno Intro then went into 'A Pain That I Am Used To'. Things were great for 5 songs until front man David Gahan made them stop the song 'Stripped' after 1 minute and start over. I found that odd, but oh well, they finished the song and it was great.

Then David walked off stage and Martin Gore sang 2 songs, which is completely normal. Then, they started 'In Your Room' for 10 seconds then cut it off, a roadie came out and told us that 'we cannot continue because we seemed to have lost our front man'. The crowd gasped and boo'ed. Roadies runnin' around everywhere, then Martin and Fletch tried to calm us down and Martin did 4 more songs on his own. He sang 'Leave In Silence' which I of course knew by heart and hadn't be performed live in the states since 1985 I guess. Then we thought that maybe Dave would come back or Martin would sing more popular DM songs or something, but NO. Another roadie guy came out and said 'we are sorry but the show is over, thanks for your support.'

Here was our final set list after the maylay of re-arranging:1. Intro2. A Pain that I'm Used To3. A Question of Time4. Suffer Well5. Precious6. Walking in My Shoes7. Stripped (*Restart*) *Dave Gahan leaves stage8. Home9. It Doesn't Matter Two9.1 In Your Room *10 second start, then nothing*Announcement that... 'we have lost our front man'*Then all Martin Gore...10. Leave in Silence11. A Question of Lust12. Somebody13. Damaged People*Announcement that... 'we have to cut it short this evening, sorry.'

Therefore, Kansas City got half a show at best. (more like a 1/3)Anyway, I heard there is a petition online somewhere to get them to refund our money or come back to KC and honor our ticket stubs. When I find it, I'll let you know.

Reasons for David's exit have included the following:-David is on drugs again-David was hungover from his 44th birthday party the night before-David pooped his pants-David had stomach flu from being in Mexico the night before-David collapsed backstage-David was mad the venue was half full-David got attacked by a flying bat

Then I read today that they canceled their Chicago show tonight because David has laryngitis. So at this point, who knows what happened.

I still love their stuff and would like them to come back to KC this summer.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Added Feature: ParaPlan Live Dispatch Multi-Select Module View a list of all trips. Sort by Name, Route, Pick Up Time or Drop Off Time Sort each ascendingly or descendingly.

After selecting 1 or more trips users can...1- Assign those trips to a selected route and dispatch them if selected.2- Timestamp the trips. (Dispatched, Picked Up, Dropped Off)3- Select a cancelation reason and cancel the trips.4- Mark them as no-go's or no-show's.

This new feature was built and deployed based on our user wish-list. We will continue listening to our clients as we continue enhancing our software systems.

Friday, April 28, 2006

Tim gave me some new blogs to read today and I have always wanted an RSS reader inside of Outlook. I did a little googlin and read that intraVnews by FutureGlue was the best. So I gave it a whirl and I really like it. The free version may have a 10 feed limit, but I have more than 10 already.

"intraVnews is a state of the art news aggregator that turns Microsoft Outlook into a news reader."

Monday, April 24, 2006

LiveWave recently hired EnGraph (well I guess Tim Hibbard) to set up a real-time GPS tracking website like Where's Tim. Tim rolled this project out over the weekend and has even added their dynamic cameras to the site. See the site live at at maps.livewave.net. We are very proud of Tim and excited about this collaboration of technolgies he can bring to our new and existing clients.

Carl and I visited the City Of Jonesboro Arkansas Transit last week to install 2 EnGraph transportation software products; ParaPlan Lite and RiderTrac. These products support the management of paratransit and fixed route transportation services, respectively. Jonesboro (a town of 70,000) does not yet have public transportation, but they are starting brand new service on May 4, 2006. EnGraph was a crucial piece in getting this endeavor accomplished. I really like how both Carl and I can offer more than software now. We have been to over 35 different transportation providers since 1999 and we can now provide sound advice and recommendations regarding the service they provide.

The Director of Transportation, Joel Edwards, is coordinating every aspect of the project, from Advertising to driver training. Joel has been on the forefront of several local papers and news stations, read about it here. They procured 5 Ford E-450's from Ward Transportation and they are naming the new system JETS (Jonesboro Economical Transit System). They were building bus stops while we were there, among many other things. Joel has a great staff behind him: Monica, Callie, Janice and Bill. The IT staff was very helpful and organized. I was very impressed with their system as a whole and the current status of each workstation. We are very excited to be a part of Jonesboro's advancement to the next level.

My great friend David Manthey and his wife Julie founded and currently manage Runner's Edge of the Rockies. They are both very experienced runners and now have over 200 members in their large training group. They properly train, coach and advise runners for marathons and other long distance races. They participate in weekly training runs with the group.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

The KU basketball team took a 10-0 winning streak into Austin and simple got slaughtered. I went to a local bar and grill here in KC with my brother Craig, my friends Jodi and Tim, my best bud Matt and his sister Courtney and her boyfriend Charlie (from Austin). Anyway, as Jodi and Tim were leaving early, Matt said the following, "Shroba, you can't leave...we're on a 2-0 run! Oh wait...make that a 2-2 run."

Thursday, February 09, 2006

We are combining offices into one great space in Lawrence, KS. We are very excited about getting everyone together and taking our company to the next level. Our new office will be in the heart of the Lawrence entertainment area. Tim talks about the move here. More info soon, but here are a few early pics...

Monday, February 06, 2006

Tim snagged this book by Jeffrey Gittomer called the Little Red Book of Selling. I have read it once and loved it. I still pick it up from time to time and read parts of it. It is an easy read and very simple for math minds like me. I recommend it highly, not only does it teach you about how to sell, but why people buy. It is a huge self-motivator for me...go pick it up.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Just kidding. I am sure it can, but I gave up. The Microsoft Business Contact Manager is a COM Add-In for Outlook 2003. I used the original BCM for a while in the summer of 2004 and I kinda liked it. It is a nice way to manage your customers and your correspondence with them. However, Tim had built some add-ins for Outlook also and they conflicted with BCM and BCM uses MSDE and was fairly slow. The Beta 2.0 Framework also caused it to barf often, so I uninstalled it.

Anyway, Microsoft has recently released an update to the BCM so I figured I would give it a try to see the new features and hoped it was faster. Here is what happened...

Downloaded the BCM update and installed it.

Seemed to go pretty smooth until I restarted Outlook. The BCM wizard took me through creating a new database etc. Then, Outlook started and I could not see the BCM add-in anywhere, so I shut down Outlook and restarted it. I think my Google search in Outlook conflicted with it somehow, but that was the error I got, so I uninstalled Google Search. Upon re-opening Outlook, I received an error that Outlook could not start without disabling the BCM add-in? What the heck?

So I called Tim to ask if uninstalling Outlook would be a good idea and he said 'why not, just make sure you save you Office settings'. So he showed me how to save my OPS file and I continued on.

The next phase of my quest continues every possible installation/uninstallation of the following products: Outlook 2003, BCM Update, MSDE, and the original BCM which I have on CD. Each time changing the order of installation etc. But I never saw the BCM menu or tools in Outlook.

I then looked for help online and discovered others have had trouble with it too, mainly involving the presence of 2.0 Beta, but I had already uninstalled that a while back.

So then I thought that SQL Express 2005 may have been causing a problem so I get rid of that too, still BCM didn't work.

So I have got my computer exactly the way it was before I started. If you are planning to install the BCM Update...good luck. If you need help, Alexander Gorlach knows his stuff.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Tim was recently featured on the latest podcast on GeeksWithBlogs. He was selected because of his work with EnGraph, .NET, GPS and the international popularity of Where's Tim. GeeksWithBlogs is where Tim hosts his blog and was started by Jeff Julian right here in Kansas City. They have over 700 bloggers and have become a leading technology reference.